Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 comedy The Rivals is, on the textual level,
about as funny today as it must have been when first presented. In
stripping away the layers of artifice from human interactions to reveal the
core of either idealism or realistic common sense beneath, Sheridan has
explicitly defined the boundaries of an eternal struggle for humanity: What
Is versus What Might Be. That applies well to the Pearl production, too.

As for the play itself, it's easy to laugh at the characters' various
machinations. The finest comedy is always based in truth, and many of the
characters amplify a different take on the weird and wacky world of social
and romantic discourse; Sheridan was a deft satirist. His most famous and
obvious creation here is Mrs. Malaprop (Carol Schultz), who has such great
faith in her vocabulary and rhetorical abilities that she never seems to
notice she uses the wrong word whenever she needs to emphasize her point the
most.

Yet Sheridan has plenty of additional targets: The show's central figure,
Lydia Languish (Rachel Botchan), has learned everything she knows about love
from reading torrid romance novel-like books and will accept nothing less
than a perfect, poverty-stricken romance, while Faulkland (Christopher
Moore), a secondary character, is consumed with worry and jealousy about his
own intended, whom he subjects to constant tests of loyalty due to his own
idealism.

This, of course, relegates their loved ones to defensive postures -
Faulkland's Julia (Eunice Wong) headstrong and Lydia's Jack Absolute (Sean
McCall) determined. He, especially, has to be: born of wealth Lydia wants
nothing to do with, he's assumed the role of her dream lover Beverley, and,
as such, fallen afoul of Lydia-chaser Bob Acres (Dominic Cuskern) as
Beverley, and romantic gadabout Lucius O'Trigger (Dan Daily), who is willing
to fight Jack to the death for Lydia's hand after having been mislead by her
aunt, Mrs. Malaprop.

Robert Neff Williams, in directing the production, seldom successfully
untangles the show's potentially confusing and circuitous stories. To his
credit, he keeps the action moving fluidly: his characters seem to be in a
constant circular progression around the boundaries of Sarah Lambert's
platform-and-curtain set, and he wastes no time in getting a new scene ready
as the old one is ending. His work is efficient, but it leaves both the
actors and audience little time to savor, absorb, or revel.

This makes the more moving and funnier moments a harder sell, the production
often floating around aimlessly in between. Schultz's performance is
hilarious, but doesn't it have to be? How can any actress worth her salt
not bring down the house with lines as delicious as "He is the very
pineapple of politeness" or "As headstrong as an allegory on the banks of
the Nile"? The other actors need to work harder for their laughs, but the
jokes seldom have enough room (or time) to land as they should.

Celeste Ciulla as the enterprising maid to Lydia and Malaprop and Robert
Hock as Jack's father come the closest, netting some of the production's
finest non-Malaprop laughs. Moore is appealing as the wide-eyed Faulkland
and Botchan as the impossibly idealistic Lydia, though their partners, Wong
and McNall, tend to come across more stiffly than is perhaps ideal. As
Lucius, Dan Daily certainly isn't stiff, but his slightly wavering Irish
accent and somewhat watery portrayal don't make too much of an impression.

Then again, little in this production does. Of course, there's the
delightfully batty Schultz and Frank Champa's beautiful and colorful
costumes, but not much else works to set this version of The Rivals apart.
It's a solid, intelligent, and well-considered production that feels, at
times, a bit too grounded for its own good. Despite a number of
opportunities, Schultz's malapropisms are about all that really fly.

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Pearl Theatre Company
Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The RivalsThrough November 23
Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes with one intermission
Theatre 80, 80 St. Mark's Place between First and Second Avenues
Schedule and Tickets: 212.598.9802